Kansas City-area cities get $4M for efficient street lights

A coalition of 26 cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area will receive $4 million in federal stimulus money to install energy-efficient street lights.

The Smart Lights Coalition was among efforts in 20 communities selected Friday for energy efficiency and renewable energy grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. The local coalition includes metro-area cities that did not receive energy grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last year.

The “Smart Lights for Smart Cities” program is designed to test various street light technologies and vendors to gather information that will guide further adoption of efficient street lights. Along with the 26 area cities, the program will include Kansas City Power & Light Co., other utilities and the Mid-America Regional Council.

According to a MARC release, the grant money will help finance the installation of high-efficiency street lights in each of the 26 participating cities. Coalition members and utilities will pay back half of all utility savings from the program for five years, with the money going into a revolving loan fund to finance the purchase of additional street lights. CommunityAmerica Credit Union has committed $5 million in private financing for street light retrofits, the release stated.

Jody Ladd Craig, public affairs director for MARC, said one issue that prevents cities from adopting new street lights is the lack of solid information on which products work best.

“It’s the sort of thing that you can’t buy one and try it out and then send it back if you don’t like the color,” she said.

Information collected as part of the program will help guide cities in the coalition, and others nationwide, in selecting high-efficiency lighting.

Craig said 4,000 lights will be installed as part of the program, with half using LED technology and half using induction technology.

Cities included in the coalition are in Johnson, Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties in Kansas and Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties in Missouri. The largest cities in the coalition are Liberty and Raytown.

MARC estimates that the program will bring immediate cost and annual savings of nearly $132,000 and a savings of 1.2 million kilowatt hours. Long-term benefits, including the conversion of existing street lights to high-efficiency fixtures, are estimated to bring annual utility bill savings of more than $1.1 million and a reduction of nearly 10.2 kilowatt hours by year six.